Navy veteran sentenced in Woodbury purse theft

WOODBURY — Brian P. Low, 42, of Franklin Street, Woodbury, was sentenced Friday to five years in New Jersey state prison for his admitted theft of a woman's purse in the Woodbury Acme supermarket on Jan. 13.

“It was an alcohol relapse,” Low told Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson as the U.S. Navy veteran apologized and vowed it would be his last brush with the law, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.

He had prior convictions for forgery and theft in New Jersey.

In sentencing Low to the prison term he agreed to on Aug. 16, Allen-Jackson said Low would “remain lawless” until his addiction was effectively dealt with.

Under the plea agreement, two additional robbery counts involving cash snatched from registers of a Woodbury convenience store on Jan. 1 and from a Woodbury Rite-Aid store on the same date were dismissed.

He has been jailed in default of $50,000 bail since his arrest on the day of the pocketbook theft.